ISBN 9789956616565
Pages 78
Dimensions 203mm x 127mm
Published 2010
Publisher Langaa RPCIG, Cameroon
Format Paperback

A Basket of Flaming Ashes

by Joyce Ashuntantang

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£15.40

Reviews

"Ashuntantang is an extraordinary weaver of words who showcases vivid pictures that compete with 3D simulation. Her greatest asset is her use of the beautiful traditional Cameroonian anchor that evokes folk tales with its moonlight romance and glory. You feel, laugh, weep, shiver, wonder, and hail the triumphant spirit of the persona as it navigates African post-colonial and global experiences with the melancholy of an exile who is purposeful, strategic, and a lot of fun."

Chinyere G. Okafor, Professor of English and Women’s Studies, Wichita State University, Kansas

A Basket of Flaming Ashes may be Joyce Ashuntantang’s debut poetry collection but it already displays the lyricism and craftsmanship of an experienced poet. The poems flow naturally with feminine elegance and course through myriad forms of love. These are poems that the reader will always go back to read because of their enduring freshness and evocation of experiences that one can easily identify with. I find the collection enthralling.”

Tanure Ojaide, Frank Porter Graham Professor of Africana Studies, University of North Carolina

"Phoenix-like, Joyce Ashuntantang’s poems in A Basket of Flaming Ashes rise up again and again as an affirmation of the suffering, the song, the celebration, and the beauty, of forging a place for the self in two worlds: Cameroon and America. The confluence of voices, in particular, makes that affirmation resonant and powerful."

Mary Fister, Associate Professor of English/Creative Writing, University of Hartford, Connecticut.

“Playful, sassy, seductive, and suggestive, these poems are Joyce Ashuntantang’s “yes” to life in the midst of losses voiced through multiple and varied speakers who crave connection through nurturing words, shared loaves of laughter, fecundating voices, fire from touching tongues… Her acute cinematic sense, keen eye and sharp ear allow her to render vividly the colors, scents, sounds and the flow of life not only of her native Cameroon but also her adopted homelands.”

Frank M. Chipasula, Professor of Africana Studies, Southern Illinois University

About the Author

Joyce Ashuntantang

Joyce Ashuntantang (Joyce Ash) is a poet, actress, interdisciplinary scholar and Associate Professor of English at the University of Hartford, Connecticut. A graduate of universities on three continents, Dr. Ashuntantang received a B.A in English with a minor in Theater Arts from the University of Yaoundé, Cameroon, a Master's in Library and Information Science from the University of Aberystwyth, UK, and a Ph.D. in English/African Literature from the City University of New York. She is the author of many scholarly and creative publications, which include Landscaping Postcoloniality: The Dissemination of Cameroon Anglophone Literature (2009) and three poetry collections, Their Champagne Party will End: Poems in Honor of Bate Besong, co-edited (2008), A Basket of Flaming Ashes (2010) and Beautiful Fire (2018). She has appeared as an invited poet in many countries around the world including England, Germany, Nicaragua, Greece, Costa Rica, Colombia, Bangladesh, Cameroon and USA. She has also contributed to several international anthologies of poetry highlighting the plight of  minority groups including, Peace for Afrin, Peace for Kurdistan (2019), Hiraeth-Erzolirzoli: A Wales - Cameroon Anthology (2018), Poems for the Hazara (2014), Reflections: An Anthology of New Work by African Women Poets (2013) and We Have Crossed Many Rivers: New Poetry from Africa (2012). Her poems have been translated into Spanish, Greek, Hebrew, Turkish, Bangla, Arabic and Romanian. Her Awards include Spirit of Detroit Award for Leadership (1987), Ministry of Culture, Cameroon, Award for Outstanding Performance in Theater (1989, 1994), Belle K. Ribicoff Prize for Excellence in Teaching and Scholarship (2012) and Kathrak-Bangladesh Literary Award (2018).

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